Gaby Book 17 - Seasons

 
With everything else going on I forgot to tell you about the Garde uniform, the new one that is. I still don’t know why I need one but it’s a done deal now, to be honest it was Thursday before I remembered that I needed to try it on.

“What are you wearing?” Mand asked.
“Don’t ask,” I told her rolling my eyes.
“I just did,” she pointed out.
“Oh yeah.”
“So?”
“The new Garde uniform,” I sighed.
“You look like something off the Christmas tree.”

I guess that's being kind. At least it’s not as pink as I'd dreaded, okay it’s pink but more raspberry than rose, a little less saccharine.

“Clashes with your hair,” Mand giggled.
“Not a problem we wear white perücke and heavy make-up, I'm sure I showed you before.”
“What’s a perücke?”
“You know, a wig.”
“Oh right, don’t remember any pictures though, I know it’s all that marching stuff but that's about it, so what's with the uniform? Thought you only went for fitness.”
“I do but Han thinks I need this for some reason,” I sighed.

“Do you need picking up?” Dad enquired as we extricated ourselves from the Mercedes.
“Should be okay,” I replied.
“Hi, Herr Bond,” Pia offered,” Mum says are you eating here tonight?”
“Gab is supposed to be cooking so tell your mother, yes please.”
“Da-ad!”
“What time, Pia?”
“Six?”
“I'll be there, see you girls later.”
“Yes, Dad,” I sighed shutting the door, “tschuss.”
“Bye, kids!”

He set off and the three of us headed into the Stube.

“Urgh! I swear!”
“Got you out of cooking,” P mentioned, “coffee?”

Not knowing exactly what the Sebenschuh’s had ordered I was fully equipped, underskirts, Büstenheber , BH, blouse and I'd even got Mand to braid my hair.

“You girls okay?” Eva Sebenschuh, P’s mum asked.
“Think we can manage,” Pia told her.
“Well don’t be too long, what time’s Connie coming?”
“She said about five?”
“Hmm, okay, shoo!”
“Shooing already,” P giggled leading the way through into the family home.

I primped in Pia’s long mirror whilst the others finished dressing. In these parts if people wear Trachtenmode it’s usually lacking all the fancy stuff you get down south in Bavaria and that but Eva had gone for practical dressy, black dresses with a sort of peachy trim and a matching apron. There weren’t any underpinnings but we did get practical cotton Trachtenbluse, I readjusted the girls and grinned at my reflection.

“What’re you grinning at,” Mand asked joining me at the mirror.
“Nothing.”
“I have so got to get one of those lift up bra things,” she noted comparing my chest to hers.
“Me too, I look like I've got fried eggs in here.”
“Oh I don’t know, they could be double yolkers!” I joked, ducking to miss the friendly slap sent my way.
“So like do we wear proper shoes when we’re working?” Mand asked as she turned to get a look at her bum in the mirror.
“Guess so,” Pia offered.

“You could be mistaken for real waitresses,” Ingrid suggested when we presented ourselves for inspection back in the Stube.
That of course resulted in a bit of sibling tongue poking from Pia.

“Wunderbar,” Helmut noted when he arrived from the cellars.
“So your wife can get some things right, eh?” Eva quested.
“I still think the gelb was nicer.”
“But not very practical, what if they are working the evening?”
“Okay, okay,” he agreed.
“So what do you girls think?” Eva enquired as she checked the fit on us.
“I think I need some er help on top, Mama,” Pia suggested.
“Help?”
“Er I think she means these, Frau Sebenschuh,” I offered pointing to my chest.

All eyes of course rotated towards my exposed chest.

“Impressive, Gabs,” Ingrid broke the silence.
Turning a shade darker than my hair, I filled the silence,”it’s just a Büstenheber.”
“A whatty?” Ingrid queried.
“It’s like a bra without cups,” Pia supplied, “lifts everything up.”
“I'm not quite sure it’s appropriate,” Eva suggested.
Helmut however clearly had other thoughts, “Eva, get the girl one of these lift things, it’s exactly what our guests will be expecting, er well endowed waitresses.”
“What do you think, Inge?” Eva asked of her elder child.
“I think dad’s right, Mama, it’s okay looking like a hausfrau for normal work but the idea is to make these guests think they are getting a real ‘deutscher’ experience, even if one of the girls is English.”
Eva let out a sigh, “Okay, okay, we’ll order you one.”
“Yes!” Pia cheered.
“Best get them for the other girls too,” Helmut suggested, Eva just rolled her eyes.
“So, Gabs,” Ingrid started,” how come you’ve got one of these Büstenheber things?”
“I erm have a similar issue to Pia so I er checked stuff out on the internet.”
“You got one of those for me?” Con asked joining our meeting.
“Come on, Connie, it’s in the back,” Eva instructed.

“Hmm,” Helmut stroked his chin, “we should get some pictures, for promotion.”

We were still be-dirndled but sat in the lounge area with coffee and cake.

“I guess we can pose the girls, we can be the guests,” Eva suggested.
“Not gonna work, guys,” Ingrid put in, “it’ll look false, they need to be really serving and stuff.”
Herr S sipped at his coffee again, “How would you girls be about working this evening?”
“All right by me,” Con replied.
Mand shrugged, well it’s not like we had anything planned, “We’re in.”
“What are you up to, Helmut Sebenschuh?” his wife asked.
“We’ve got that birthday meal tonight, they can serve that, I'll ring Axel to do the pictures, he’s always up for a free meal.”
“Ja, my brother has never turned down my cooking,” Eva agreed.

Axel Freisinger, Pia’s uncle, I've met before, he’s got a photographic business up in Adenau, weddings, portraits and so on. He arrived in time to join the enlarged family meal, a nice (well it is a restaurant!) pork in mushroom sauce with potato croquettes and Rotkohl. There wasn’t a dessert, not that trussed up like this I could’ve eaten one.

Mand got a crash course in waitressing from the Stube’s resident head waitress, Ingrid – soon enough the first guests started to arrive. Dad was installed at the bar with Helmut, Axel was armed with his cameras and our flock of waitresses prepared for this training session.

It was quite late when we eventually left the Stube, photographed, ogled and eventually changed back into civvies, the uniforms would be at the cleaners Monday. Con got a lift home with us so it was almost midnight when we got indoors.

“Had a phone call from Australia yesterday,” Dad mentioned as we joined the northbound autobahn next morning.
“Nana Bond?”
“Uh huh,” he agreed, “they’re coming to Europe in the summer.
“Kewl!”

Nana and Gramps Bond emigrated to Australia when I was about six or seven, I think I've seen them twice since then.

“They’re keen to see their granddaughter racing.”
“So they’ll come to Germany?”
“Indeed, they want to make it a big family do, get all the family together.”
“All the family?”
“That’s the plan, they’ve rented a house so your Uncle Sam and Aunt Kath can come over with their families too.”

It might not be something that’s mentioned much but I do have some relatives, we might not be the closest of families but that’s partly because we live all over. Auntie Kath and her brood live down in Dorset and Uncle Sam’s family are up in the Lake District where he works for the National Park. It’s pretty much a wedding and funeral thing when we get together – oh when we lived in Warsop we’d see them if we were near them but that could literally be years apart.

“All of them?”
“Yup,” Dad agreed, “you know Aunt Kath is expecting again?”
“I thought she’d only just popped.”
“Rosie’s nearly one, kiddo.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“So like you’ve got some cousins then,” Mand noted from the other side of the car.
“A few, Uncle Sam’s got three boys and Auntie Kath has already got four, all girls.”
“I think they’re hoping for a boy this time,” Dad supplied.
“They were hoping for a boy when Daisy was born,” I pointed out, Daisy being the second of their four daughters.
“If at first you don’t succeed,” Dad started.
“Try, try, try again,” I finished the family joke, they’d wanted a boy when Violet and Rosie were born too, only Jasmine not a disappointment gender wise.
“So how many are there?”
“My sister’s got four,” Dad advised.
“Uncle Sam’s got three boys,” I added, “me and Jules are the eldest.”
“Sounds like quite a party,” Mand observed.

I kind of felt bad for Mand right then, she’s said before that she doesn’t have many rels, she doesn’t even get on with her mum and here we are rubbing this ‘big’ family in her face.

“So what’s this race like?” Mand asked as we departed Ron’s place.
“Up and down,” I supplied.
“Well duh!”
“We start in Barmen,” Ron started, “climb out to the circuit, I think it’s four laps then back to Wupper for the finish.”
“It’s a right honk up to the finish,” I added.
“Great,” Mand allowed.

This isn’t the same event, the Langeberg GP, we rode here last year but today uses the same circuit. It’s almost the opposite to last week’s huge event, we’ll almost certainly be the only girls and the field correspondingly smaller. I watched the very urban landscape of the Wuppertal pass by, the Schwebebahn swooping along above the river only adding to the contrast to last week’s Schwarzwald trip.

Maddy Bell © 04.11.16